Defying Gravity
by flylikeadcriss
Summary: Kurt frowned in confusion and paused the music. "How'd you sing the end of the song?" Finn clarified. In which Finn hears Kurt singing Defying Gravity and comes to several realizations about his new stepbrother.


The plan had been that Finn, Kurt, Burt, and Carole all start packing right after the wedding and be completely moved into their new house a couple of weeks after. However, Kurt's sudden transfer to Dalton had called for a dramatic change of plans, since he'd be moving into the dorms there the Monday after the wedding and would have to have all of his things packed to either go there with him or go to the new house by then.

The result of this new complication was an entire Saturday devoted to Finn and Kurt moving Kurt's things over to the new house, so they could work on everybody else's moving once Kurt was gone. Finn wasn't going to complain—he felt guilty enough about everything that had happened to Kurt, and he wanted to make things as easy as possible for him, even if it meant giving up a Saturday.

He'd also done most of the carrying, but he wasn't complaining about that either. Besides, it was undeniable that he was a lot bigger than Kurt and it was only logical for him to get most of the boxes.

Kurt's grateful promise to make him brownies as soon as they were done helped, too.

They arrived at the new house just after lunchtime (Finn had driven through Taco Bell on the way for himself, but Kurt hadn't been hungry and "would never eat those horrific burritos that are filled with chemicals and don't even taste good" anyway.)

Kurt had gotten out his laptop about an hour earlier and put on some music that Finn didn't really recognize or understand but he didn't mind listening to it. They were working in silence, except for Kurt singing along absentmindedly to some song about being popular. Then the song changed, and a new one came on that was vaguely familiar to Finn.

It took him a minute to place it, but when Kurt started singing softly again as he alphabetized his CDs, he remembered. It was that song that Kurt and Rachel had both wanted to sing the year before, but Rachel had won because Kurt couldn't get the high note at the end or something like that.

He turned to look at Kurt, who had begun to sing louder without realizing it. And then, as the song ended, he sang the whole last part straight through, louder and without his voice even wavering. The song changed again, and Kurt fell silent, a small, satisfied smile on his face.

Then he looked up to see Finn, still staring at him strangely.

"What?" he asked.

"How'd you do that?" Finn asked.

"What?" Kurt asked again, looking down at the CD case he was holding and opening it to make sure it held the right disc.

"The song," Finn said, gesturing towards Kurt's laptop, which was playing a new song that Finn didn't recognize. Kurt frowned in confusion and paused the music. "How'd you sing the end of the song?" Finn clarified.

Kurt stiffened for just a moment, then shrugged with obviously false nonchalance.

"You couldn't do it for the diva-off," Finn pressed.

"I guess I just got better," Kurt replied neutrally, looking back down at the CD he was holding and placing it carefully on the shelf.

"You could totally do it then if you can do it now," Finn argued. "Your voice was even higher then." Kurt glared at him.

"Well, I couldn't," he snapped.

"You could," Finn said, now completely sure of this. "You wouldn't have wanted to do it if you couldn't."

"I thought I could," Kurt said, still not looking at Finn but now sounding really annoyed. "And I couldn't. Okay?"

"No," Finn said, putting down the book he was holding. "That doesn't make any sense. You auditioned because you knew you could do it."

"Why does it even matter?" Kurt asked angrily, putting a CD case on the shelf with much more force than was necessary.

"Because," Finn said, waving his hand and unable to really articulate why it mattered. "If you could do it, why'd you screw up the song?"

"I couldn't do it," Kurt denied stubbornly. "Can you just drop it?"

"Why?" Finn repeated, ignoring this.

Kurt was completely silent for a minute, then he sighed heavily and finally looked up at Finn.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone," he said. "Especially Rachel."

Finn hesitated, then nodded.

"I messed up the audition on purpose so I wouldn't get the song," Kurt confessed.

"Why?" Finn asked, shocked. He remembered that Kurt had fought really hard to get the audition for the song. Burt had come in and yelled at Mr. Shue and everything.

"Because Dad got an anonymous phone call about me, and I didn't want to make it worse by singing a girl's song, okay?" Kurt said in a frustrated rush.

"Like…" Finn said, before trailing off because he had no idea how to ask for confirmation as to what kind of phone call he thought Kurt meant.

"Yes," Kurt said shortly before Finn had to come up with a way to ask. "And I wasn't going to make his life worse just so I could sing a song."

"Oh," Finn said after a moment of silence.

Kurt didn't reply, and Finn picked his book back up to shelve. He was only half-concentrating on sorting the books into genres and then alphabetizing them by author.

He couldn't help but wonder what other things Kurt had been dealing with up until now, when Finn had really started to look. And he couldn't help but wonder why it had taken him so long to start to look.

But he was too late, because in a couple days Kurt was going to a new school because he hadn't looked enough and when he had he hadn't done anything.

"Nobody else knows that," Kurt suddenly said, making Finn jump slightly. "Except for Dad." He paused before continuing, "Nobody ever really asked."

"You did really well on the song and everything," Finn said hesitantly. "You totally would've won."

"Thanks, Finn," Kurt said quietly, but Finn saw a small smile appear on his face.

"Just don't tell Rachel I said that," Finn added quickly. Kurt shook his head and smiled.

"I won't," he promised.

Finn wanted to tell Kurt that it had taken him a while but he knew now that Kurt was pretty much the bravest person he knew, and Finn was really lucky to get him as a brother.

Instead, he just said, "I'm going to miss you. When you're at Dalton. I wish you could stay."

"Me too," Kurt replied, but he was smiling genuinely at Finn now. "I'm going to miss you, too."

Finn stood up from his seat on the floor and looked at Kurt expectantly. Kurt looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. Finn held out his arms, a hopeful expression on his face.

Kurt sighed in fake exasperation. Then he rose out of his chair to let Finn hug him.

* * *

><p><strong>Does anybody else think that Finn would give amazing hugs, because he's really big and wears puffy vests?<strong>


End file.
